(LAS VEGAS) - Team North America maintained its lead over Team World after the third round of team competition this morning at the 2014 World Financial Group Continental Cup at the Orleans Arena.

Three points were split as both sides earned a victory and one game resulted in a tie. USA's John Shuster's rink fell to the reigning world champions from Sweden, led by Niklas Edin, 7-3. Shuster and teammates Jeff Isaacson (Virginia, Minn.), Jared Zezel (Hibbing, Minn.), and John Landsteiner (Duluth, Minn.) got behind early and never regained momentum.

"I'm not sure really what went wrong today. I think maybe just a head game. We thought the rocks were going to react differently than they would. We weren't as sharp as yesterday," said Landsteiner, 23, who works as a civil engineer in Duluth, Minn.

Edin made a double takeout in the opening end but couldn't keep the shooter stone in the rings to score a deuce and the score was 1-0 in favor of the Swedish men.

The U.S. was held to a single in the next end before Sweden struck big in the third to break the game open as Edin made a takeout for three points. The American men were again forced to take a single in the fourth and allowed the Swedes to score two points in the fifth to pad their lead. In the sixth end, Shuster's final takeout attempt resulted in his shooter stone rolling out of the rings and Sweden stealing a point to go up 7-2. The U.S. men could only post a single point in the seventh end and could not set up a big steal to earn points for North America as Sweden earned the victory.

Manitoba's Jennifer Jones led her team to a 9-3 victory over Sweden's Margaretha Sigfridsson to earn a point for North America. Canada's Rachel Homan flashed a takeout with the final stone of her team's game against Japan's Satsuki Fujisawa so the end result was a tie and the available point was split per side.

"We needed a good win here and we needed to get some points in the board as well," Edin said. "We were lucky in that last game (Team Fujisawa) to tie it up. It's looking better and better, we're starting to get a feel for the ice and some points on the board, so I think it should be interesting the next few match-ups."

Next up for both American teams will be the singles competition in which athletes earn points based on six specific shots. Erika Brown and the U.S. ladies will take on Japan while Shuster's team will battle David Murdoch's rink from Scotland. The singles competition begins at 1 PT today.

"It was really fun to start the games up and get curling. Being a part of Team North America has been really fun," said Landsteiner, who is making his rookie appearance at the Cup. "The atmosphere is great and the crowd is awesome." Yesterday's total attendance was just over 13,100 for the opening day, which featured three draws.

Live scoring can be found at http://www.curling.ca/2014continentalcup-en/results/.

Line scores:

World (Fujisawa)101 001 02 - 5

*North America (Homan)020 120 00 - 5

*World (Edin)103 021 0x - 7

North America (Shuster)010 100 1x - 3

World (Sigfridsson)000 010 2x - 3

*North America (Jones)203 301 0x - 9

CompetitionWorldNorth America

Team-Round 121

Mixed Doubles, Rd112

Team-Round 203

Team-Round 31.51.5

Singles

Mixed Doubles, Rd2

Team-Round 4

Team-Round 5

Skins-Round 1

Skins-Round2

Grand Total4.57.5

Here is a look at the matchups through Saturday (Sunday matchups TBA), all times PT:

The Cup is a joint collaboration of USA Curling, the World Curling Federation, and the Canadian Curling Association, and is being staged outside of Canada for the first time.

NBC Sports Network will televise two games. The U.S. women's team competition from Saturday will air on NBCSN from 1:30-3:30 p.m. ET on Sunday. The U.S. men's team competition from Jan. 18, will air from 8-10 p.m. ET on Sunday, Jan. 26.

In addition, Universal Sports Network will televise two of the Jan. 19 skins matches from the Cup. The first game will air from 5-7:30 p.m. ET on Jan. 20, followed by the second skins match from 5-7:30 p.m. ET on Jan. 21.

Coverage will be streamed via "TV Everywhere," the media industry's effort to make quality content available to authenticated customers both in and out of the home and on multiple platforms.

For desktops, NBC Sports Live Extra can be accessed at NBCSports.com/liveextra. The NBC Sports Live Extra app for mobile devices and tablets is available at the App Store for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, and on select Android handset and tablet devices within Google Play.

Coverage airing on NBCSN will live stream to PCs, mobile devices and tablets through NBC Sports Live Extra, and to the digital platforms of participating cable, satellite, and telco services, via "TV Everywhere," which is available on an authenticated basis to subscribers of participating MVPDs.

Live coverage will also be available on the World Curling Federation's YouTube Channel World Curling TV.

USA Curling is sponsored by AtomAmpd, Nike, Brooms Up Curling Supplies, Sitrin, BalancePlus and The RAM Restaurant & Brewery, and is partnered with Hilton, United Airlines, RJM Licensing Inc., and CurlingZone.

Visit the USA Curling website at www.usacurl.org and connect with USA Curling on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Foursquare.